The Zygon Inversion
by ExactChase
Summary: During an attempted invasion of Zygons upon Remnant, Ruby—carrying the title of The Doctor—has no other choice but to try and talk them down.


**A/N: This is just a one-shot for now, but if you guys like it, I can turn it into a full blown story.**

Ruby quickly entered Beacon's vault, WBY not too far behind. Their footsteps echoed through the mostly empty room, as they neared their destination. Ruby's red frock coat drifted behind her with each rhythmic step. Underneath said coat, she wore a black vest, and a white dress shirt. As well as a pair of dark colored jeans and a pair of brown boots. A scowl was painted across her face as she moved towards the only other occupants of the vault; Glynda Goodwitch, and two versions of Jaune. One version was the real Jaune, while the other was a shape shifting creature in disguise. A Zygon. Ruby could easily tell the difference between the two, as one was being roughly held by two Zygons, and the other was standing at a table, across from Goodwitch. On either side of the table was two boxes, one blue and one red. They were both open, and both had two buttons. Zy-Jaune and Glynda each had their hands positioned over the boxes, ready to press them. But they didn't know what did which.

"There's two of them." Fake Jaune said, a little angry. Ruby cracked a small smile.

"Operation Double, what did you expect?" Ruby jokingly asked.

"What's in them, Doctor?!" Doctor was Ruby's codename, a title of sorts, passed from person to person for thousands of years. But it was a little different than a title. When someone of the title died, they regenerated, becoming someone who would have been worthy of the title had they not died. The person they became inherited their regenerative abilities, as well as their memories and knowledge. This made Ruby the smartest person in the universe… and technically nine hundred years old. RWBY had traveled with the last Doctor—Ozpin—in his TARDIS; a time machine, until Ruby was killed during an invasion of Cybermen. The Doctor was furious when he had found that she had sacrificed herself to stop the invasion, but even more so when he found that it was actually in vain. This was probably why she was chose for a position as the tenth Doctor.

[Before]

Ozpin bent over in pain, letting out a painful yelp as he did so. WBY immediately tried to rush to his aid, but he waved them back, so they were forced to just watch as the man writhed.

"Yang," he said. "I'm so sorry about your sister." Yang looked at him sadly. It still hurt to think of Ruby, but now that she was faced with another loss, she didn't know if she could handle it. Even if Ozpin claimed responsibility for Ruby's death, she still considered him a good friend after all he and her team had been through.

"It doesn't matter now." She quietly told him. He gave this a small smile, happy that she had forgiven him.

"What's happening?" Weiss worriedly asked.

"It's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with." He said, mostly ignoring what she had said. He suddenly gasped and knelt over, a burst of golden energy erupting from his torso.

"Tell us what's happening!" Weiss demanded.

"I'm dying." The Doctor told them.

"Can't you do something?" Yang asked.

"I am." He said. "Time Lords have this little trick. It's sort of a way of cheating death. Except... it means I'm going to change. And I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this old face. And before I go—"

"Don't say that…" Yang quietly interjected.

"Girls." He said. "Before I go, I just want to tell you you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what?" He paused and gave them a huge smile. "So was I!"

His arms suddenly shot back, flying to his sides in a T shape. A golden fire erupted from his wrists and neck, stretching several feet in length. This display of energy lasted for several seconds before his arms relaxed and he relaxed—except, he wasn't Ozpin anymore. He was a she. And she was Ruby, standing in front of the three of them, wearing Ozpin's clothes and smiling.

"Miss me?" She asked, scanning her teammates shocked expressions.

[Shift]

"Tell me!" Zy-Jaune demanded. "Now!"

"One box normalizes the Zygons." Ruby told them, backing up to the table and taking a seat on the edge.

"And the other?"

"Destroys them." All eyes were on Ruby as she said this, shocked. WBY knew that, ever since she was reincarnated as The Doctor, she went a little crazy, but this was crazy even for her.

"Which one's which?" The Zygon Leader asked.

Ruby smiled, "That would be telling."

He nodded to the Zygons and they pulled guns on WBY and Jaune.

"Tell me, or they die!" He told her.

"The blue one." Ruby calmly said. "The blue one normalizes your people."

"Are you lying to me?" He asked.

"You can't win, Clyde!" Real Jaune shouted to the fake. Ruby just shook her head.

"Stop this." She said. "Let me take both boxes away. We'll forgive, we'll forget. And the ceasefire will stand."

"No."

"Which one do I press?" Glynda asked. "Truth or Consequences?!" Ruby suddenly stood and began to wave her arms around in a childish manner, as if she was enjoying this.

"This is the moment we've all been waiting for! Make up your mind time!" She said in a rather grandiose way. "One of those buttons will destroy the Zygons, release the imbecile gas. The other one detonates the nuclear warhead under Beacon. It'll destroy everyone in Vale. Clyde. Clyde, sweetheart! One of those buttons will unmask every Zygon in the world. The other one cancels their ability to change form. It'll make them human beings for ever." It was as if she was a game show host. Like this was all a game to her.

"This is wrong." Clyde said.

"No, it's not." She countered.

"You are responsible for all the violence. All the suffering."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes!"

"No."

"You engineered this situation, Doctor. This is your fault."

"No it's not. It's your fault." Ruby calmly paced back and forth in front of the table.

"I had to do what I've done." He told her. Ruby stopped and locked eyes with him.

"So did I."

"We've been treated like cattle!" He shouted.

"So what?"

"We were left to fend for ourselves!"

"So is everyone."

"It's not fair." He said this a little quieter, but Ruby caught it and latched onto it.

"Oh, it's not fair! Oh, I didn't realise that it was not fair! Well, you know what? My Tardis doesn't work properly and I don't have my own personal tailor." Everyone looked at her with an expression to say that what she presented didn't really matter.

"The things don't equate." Clyde said.

"These things have happened, Zy-Jaune. They are facts. You just want cruelty to beget cruelty. You're not superior to people who were cruel to you. you're just a whole bunch of new cruel people. A whole bunch of new cruel people being cruel to some other people, who'll end up being cruel to you. The only way anyone can live in peace is if they're prepared to forgive. Why don't you break the cycle?" She asked. She was trying to convince them not to use the boxes, but why would she even allow them to be anywhere near them in the first place?

"Why should we?" He asked.

"What is it that you actually want?" She asked.

A long silence filled the room, as Ruby just blankly stared at him, he stared back.

"War." He said.

"Ah. Ah, right. And when this war is over, when you have a homeland free from humans, what do you think it's going to be like? Do you know? Have you thought about it? Have you given it any consideration? Because you're very close to getting what you want. What's it going to be like? Paint me a picture. Are you going to live in houses? Do you want people to go to work? Will there be holidays? Oh! Will there be music? Do you think people will be allowed to play violins? Who's going to make the violins? Well? Oh, you don't actually know, do you? Because, like every other tantruming child in history, Clyde, you don't actually know what you want. So, let me ask you a question about this brave new world of yours. When you've killed all the bad guys, and when it's all perfect and just and fair, when you have finally got it exactly the way you want it, what are you going to do with the people like you? The troublemakers. How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one?" She asked, having returned to pacing.

"We'll win."

"Oh, will you? Well, maybe, maybe you will win! But nobody wins for long. The wheel just keeps turning. So, come on. Break the cycle." She said.

"Why are you still talking?"

"Because I want you to see!" Ruby said. She looked desperate now, leaning in to talk to Clyde. "And I'm almost there!"

"Do you know what I see, Doctor? A box. A box with everything I need. A fifty percent chance." He said, motioning to the box. Ruby just sighed.

"For us, too." Goodwitch added.

And they're off!" Ruby quickly resumed her game show host mode, complete with a mock voice. "Fingers on buzzers! Are you feeling lucky? Are you ready to play the game? Who's going to be quickest? Who's going to be luckiest?"

"This is not a game!" Goodwitch shouted, loud enough to make Ruby jump.

"No, it's not a game, sweetheart, and I mean that most sincerely." Ruby smiled at her small reference.

"Why are you doing this?" Goodwitch asked.

"Because it's not a game, Glynda. This is a scale model of war!" She shouted. "Every war ever fought, right there in front of you. Because it's always the same. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know whose children are going to scream and burn! How many hearts will be broken! How many lives shattered! How much blood will spill until everybody does until what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning. Sit down and talk!" WBY looked at their leader, realizing that the experiences of the previous Doctors had affected Ruby emotionally. She sighed. "Listen to me. Listen, I just, I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It's just a fancy word for changing your mind."

"I will not change my mind." Clyde said. He locked eyes with Glynda and Ruby got really close to him.

"Then you will die stupid." She said. "Alternatively, you could step away from that box, you can walk right out of that door and you could stand your revolution down."

"No! I'm not stopping this, Doctor. I started it. I will not stop it. You think they'll let me go, after what I've done?!" He said. Ruby laughed at this.

"You're all the same, you screaming kids. You know that? 'Look at me, I'm unforgivable'!" Her silver eyes went soft. "Well, here's the unforeseeable; I forgive you! After all you've done, I forgive you." Ruby was the forgiving Doctor, most of her predecessors would only have given the Zygons one chance before sending them off, away from Remnant.

Clyde only looked at Ruby angrily, "You don't understand." He told her. "You will never understand." Ruby laughed again.

"I don't understand?" She asked. "You're kidding? Me? Of course I understand. I mean, you call this silly little thing a war?" She waved a hand towards the boxes. "This is not a war!" She suddenly shouted. "I fought in a bigger war than you will ever know!" Ruby pointed angrily at Clyde, nearly screaming. "I did worse things than you could ever imagine! And when I close my eyes…!" Her voice lowered and she turned around, facing the wall. "I hear more screams than anyone could ever be able to count." She quickly turned back around, her face glistening in the light as though she had shed a tear or two. "And do you know what you do with all that pain?" She asked. "You wanna know where you put it? You hold it tight!" She held he hand close to her heart. "Until it burns your hand! And you say this; 'No one else will ever have to live like this! No one else will ever have to feel this pain! Not on my watch'!" Everyone in the room stared at Ruby, shocked. And Glynda closed one of the boxes.

 **A/N: That's it for this story, remember, it's just a one-shot at this point, but it could become a full story if you guys want that.**


End file.
